There are many applications in which a container is designed to provide a partial or full enclosure of a particular substance during use, and after which the container and the enclosed material must be further handled or disposed of. For example, a great many people maintain cat litter boxes in their homes which, of course, contain a predetermined amount of cat litter and which must be periodically cleaned and/or disposed of. Other examples include containers in which limited amounts of plaster or other messy, and possibly dangerous, materials are mixed prior to being used elsewhere. Following such uses, these various containers must either be cleaned for further use or for storage, or disposed of. In particular, in instances where the container is soiled following use and contains substances which the user would rather not come into contact with, the cleaning or disposal procedure can be inconvenient, messy, and in some instances hazardous.
In particular, when dealing with soiled cat litter containers, the safety of the user's health can be compromised by unnecessary handling of the container and its soiled contents. In fact, it has been found that Toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by the protozoan Toxoplasmosis Gondii, can be transmitted through direct or indirect contact with cat feces. Toxoplasmosis is a disorder which can effect various physiological systems of the body, including the pulmonary, digestive and cardiovascular systems. Human infection follows hand-to-mouth contact, such as after disposal of soiled cat litter. Cats are the predominant hosts for this infectious organism, and the disease is highly contagious. While the disorder is generally asymptomatic in otherwise healthy adults, Toxoplasmosis is especially dangerous in pregnant women, as there is a great risk that the disorder will be transmitted to the fetus. In this regard, the disorder can cause fetal disease during any stage of pregnancy, and can cause serious perinatal mortality and morbidity, including multiple birth defects such as mental retardation, spasticity, palsies, impaired vision and deafness.
Although thorough hand washing helps avoid transmission of the disorder by cleaning away the infective oocysts, such hygiene is not nearly as safe as avoiding contact with the cat litter completely.
Containers now available in the industry fail to include features which provide for convenient and sanitary handling of such soiled containers. Therefore, despite the widepread need for containers which feature such characteristics, heretofore there has been no such container available.